I referenced a report called The Family Tech Cycle in a recent interview. One line in particular made me want to track down the researcher that wrote the report:

"Families are absorbing cognitive and emotional labor that product design could meaningfully reduce."

I've been thinking about the concept since I first read it because it named something I'd been hearing from other parents but hadn't quite articulated. It’s a lot of work for parents to keep up with every device and platform and not be blindsided by a missed parental control or new social situation for your kid.

Amanda Lenhart is the lead author on that report and a senior fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. She’s been researching how kids and families use technology since 1999, which means she’s been watching this longer than most of us have been parents - and even before she became a parent. I reached out and we got to talk about all of it. You can find the full interview on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app.

The basic idea

The report's central argument is something I think most parents will recognize the moment they hear it: companies design for moments. The download, the first login, the feature launch. Families mostly live in the ongoing mess between those moments.

Every device kicks off a cycle of decisions, setup, and management that doesn't end when the box gets recycled. Instead, the cycle restarts with the next app or situation that comes up.

She's been watching this for a while

Amanda started at Pew Research Center in 1999, where one of her first major reports was about instant messaging. At the same time she was coaching high school rowing, watching her athletes attempt to practice while still processing whatever had happened in an IM window. She’s been tracking the evolution of this stuff ever since, which gives her a unique perspective.

Her thinking has shifted quite a bit in that time. "When I started, I was much more in the camp of this is really transformative technology and I think it's probably pretty good. Now I think it has a lot of complexity. Some good, some bad, and some in the middle." Which tracks with how I think most of us think now: somewhere between the optimism we started with and a more complicated present.

Amanda also has four kids spanning nearly two decades and she describes parenting through a series of microgenerations. Each child landed on completely different platforms in completely different ways as even the platforms themselves changed. One was a minimalist Facebook user who mostly used it for sports organizing. Another gravitated toward Reddit-style conversational spaces. Another was, in Amanda’s words, a master of Instagram. Same house, same parents, totally different digital lives. The point isn't just that technology and platforms change between kids - which it does. The kids themselves are different and change over time too. And what worked or made sense for one doesn't automatically transfer to the next.

"We're kind of in it all the time," she said. "It never stops."

I've felt this already with my own daughters and they're still pretty young. New apps, new devices, new requests. Generative AI, which we discuss, is the kind of new technology that offers different capabilities and changes what parents need to think about.

What families are feeling now

Amanda and the team used co-design to study families’ relationship with technology. It’s a methodology where you work with actual users to both surface problems and prototype solutions, rather than just asking them questions. They asked kids and their parents to do things like “design their dream phone” that would help them feel safe and connected to the people they loved - including things like family rules.

Sessions were held at YMCAs and community centers in Missouri, New York, and Oklahoma. Kids sat on floors with cardboard and markers and built things. 41 parents, 53 kids ranging in age from 4 to 14.

Younger kids wanted things like fairness and explanation. Not no rules, just rules that made sense to them. Amanda said that when you actually tell kids why a limit exists, a lot of them just accept it. "Once you explain why, a lot of kids are like, yeah, I accept this. This is about me being safe."

One thing the research team didn't anticipate: how much kids worried about social exits. When a hard time limit drops them out of a game mid-session, their friends don't know what happened. It just looks like they disappeared. Kids found this genuinely stressful, and they wanted tools to handle it gracefully, a quick message that said hey, my time's up, I'll be back tomorrow. Author and teacher Ash Brandin made a version of this point in our earlier conversation: games are social spaces and kids aren't just passively consuming when they're playing. They're in the middle of something with other people, and pulling them out abruptly has social consequences they actually feel.

The parents’ perspective is also interesting. Amanda described one mother that couldn't afford the fees for her teenage boys to play football, so she bought them one phone to share between them. A device designed entirely around individual ownership, handed to two teenagers to figure out together. There were also parents across income levels who were furious about being charged for parental controls on devices they'd just purchased. The feeling was: please don't make me pay to turn something off that I just paid you to turn on.

And, parents are also navigating very different technology perceptions across complex co-parenting relationships. Technology gets entangled in broader family context.

Even facing these challenges Amanda underscores how parents were really trying to help their kids: "We didn't speak to a parent who doesn't want to do right by their kids. Everybody is trying their best in the situation that they find themselves in."

On families and AI

The report doesn't go deep on this, but Amanda says it came up in the sessions. Younger kids mostly wanted AI as a kind of protective filter to stop scary things like snakes or blood that friends sent them as a joke. They wanted it blurred, with the option to click through if they actually wanted to see it.

Amanda's bigger concern is relational and the potential for an emotional attachment to AI, something I've been thinking about too - even writing about AI friends last year. Amanda described sitting with her own kid after a conversation with a chatbot about Shakespeare, both of them a little surprised by how connected they felt almost immediately. "That's the thing that keeps coming up. Are we comfortable having children create these attachments to non-human entities?"

Amanda says she’s not against AI for kids at all. She thinks about it more in terms of use cases. Tutor, coding tool, creative collaborator, those can all be genuinely valuable. The problem she sees is when the homework tool becomes the companion, when kids are swinging between use cases inside the same tool without anyone really noticing. "I'm not sure it needs to be your best friend to do all these other things." Couldn’t agree more.

Clear historical parallels

Amanda says Joan Ganz Cooney founded Sesame Workshop and Sesame Street in the late 1960s from a specific belief: that television could be genuinely good for kids if someone actually designed it that way. "She looked around at this new technology called TV and thought this could be beneficial for kids," Amanda said. "She honestly believed that we could build good content for kids and we could do it by researching what worked."

Sesame Street wasn't just intuition. It was intentional design grounded in research about how children learn. The center Amanda works for takes that same premise and applies it forward. "Technology and media can be beneficial for kids if we design it right and intentionally and with research behind it." The question Joan Cooney asked about television is the same one Amanda and her colleagues are asking about smartphones and AI now. It can work for kids. But someone has to actually decide to make it that way.

Amanda’s own children + the smartphone decision

I always find it interesting when researchers who study something have to make a real decision about it in their own lives. So I asked Amanda about a decision she'd made recently as a parent rather than a researcher.

Last year her 12-year-old needed a phone for the first time. Not because of peer pressure or social FOMO, but for a pretty practical reason. She was going to fly alone to visit her grandparents, and as Amanda pointed out, there's no such thing as a pay phone anymore.

They spent about six hours setting the device up, which tracks completely with what the report says about unboxing being one of the most exhausting moments in the whole cycle. Maps yes. A coffee shop app yes. Cash apps yes. No real internet browser. No social media. Algorithmic video stays on the home iPad for when she's in the house, and doesn't follow her into her pocket everywhere she goes.

The most interesting part was her daughter's own reaction to the setup over time. Watching some of her friends struggle with more open access, she told her parents something that Amanda clearly found meaningful: "I really appreciate that I don't have social media right now because I see how my friends are really struggling to manage it, and I'm glad I don't have to try to do that."

Amanda knows high school is coming and the phone is going to open up gradually. That's kind of the whole point of the report. The cycle doesn't end, it just continues into the next stage.

Amanda’s advice for parents

Amanda's advice centers on tools for conversation more than control. She recommends things like a family media contract from somewhere like the American Academy of Pediatrics, a documented set of expectations that you build with your kids rather than hand down to them. "Sitting down with your kid, and this is a moment, and often it's at unboxing when you get the new device," she said, is when you lay out the why behind the rules.

Her script for that conversation is worth borrowing: tell your kids you're implementing a time limit because you want balance, because the dog needs walking, because Spanish homework matters, because "sometimes these videos just play all the time and it can be hard for us to stop watching."

"Inviting an interactive conversation with your child, knowing your child, having it be a conversation goes a long way towards getting that buy-in that means you're not locked in conflict over enforcement." She also pointed out that these conversations don't have to start from scratch. Templates exist, and the best ones are modular enough to fit where your family actually is, whether you're managing a smartwatch or navigating a full smartphone.

At the end of the interview Amanda had a good summary of the whole situation and I think it’s worth staying grounded in it: "Our goal is to get our kids through a beautiful childhood to a place where they're going to be great and functional and competent and agentic adults. These tools and platforms are designed to make you want to stay on. I want them to feel like at least they're making that choice and that choice is not being made for them."

The full report is free from The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and genuinely worth reading.

Most devices and gaming consoles aren't designed around movement. Or in-person connection. They're designed around staring at a screen, potentially with the presence of avatars/friends.

Jorge Fino is VP, Design at Nex and their Playground device is designed very differently. I talked to him after spending a few months with the Nex Playground.

The commercial story is impressive — 5,000 units in 2023, rising to about 800k last year and outselling the Xbox during Black Friday week. Maybe more impressive: Nex is designing for a real cultural conversation about screens and kids and is one of TIME's 100 most influential companies of 2026.

Fino had me thinking about my own choices, even helping me see a new perspective on my kids’ iPad usage. He helped me recognize what my kids are getting from devices and it spurred me to look for other ways to offer that. And, he shared how he thinks about technology and his family.

I previously spoke with Nicole Rouillac about the Playground and the role of good design in parents’ lives. Fino shared even more and some of his thinking helped me realize why I like the Playground so much.

You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast apps:

I loved talking to Jorge and think the Playground is genuinely brilliant. I can feel the intention the team put into each part of it. Some of what stands out to me:

It starts with what your body already knows

The Nex team didn't want to teach anyone controls. The whole premise was gestures people already have. Jorge, on movement:

"We leverage a lot of what's naturally intuitive. We remember what it was like to shoot a bow and arrow like Robin Hood, or wave a wand around like a magician, or shoot a shot like a basketball player. We know what those gestures are."

The alternative is what most motion games do — take a D-pad and map it onto your body. He's clear about why that fails:

"It's less satisfying when it's just simply mapping controls to your body. It's really allowing you to get more expressive with gameplay by using your body."

Creating the moments between

Jorge's team played pickup basketball together on Fridays and he credits it for how the Playground was designed: "The most fun parts were the moments in between when you're not actually playing the game. The chatter, the banter — it was just as fun as the game itself."

The space around the game and the feeling after.

I noticed this in my own experience with the Playground. The parts I remember are my daughter pulling her cousin in to play the next round and the Bluey cooking game where we were both chopping and laughing even after we finished. None of that was the game itself.

Aiming for the living room

A kid on an iPad is invisible. Whatever's happening is private, somewhere else, on a small screen.

Someone moving around a living room game is a spectacle. Jorge describes what happens: "When you get a group of people together and you present them with a challenge that seems fairly simple but you somehow can't solve it, you get others around you thinking, well, I could do that. Why can't they do that? So this kind of natural competitive desire to demonstrate that it's possible — that participation suddenly invites what you'd traditionally call a multiplayer but cooperative event."

Other people don't have to get specifically invited to play. They just see something and want in. That's the living room doing what the living room is supposed to do.

The sweat scale

Not every game is the same ask for your body. Jorge's team thoughtfully labeled them and created a range.

"We have a variety of experiences that are, if you could call it like a “sweat scale.” Some are really high in sweat scale, and some that are not. You want to find those kinds of experiences that resonate, whether it's an IP you love or there's some kind of motion that feels really fun."

A game like bowling is different from Hungry Hippos, which is different than Starri. All demand different amounts of movement, with some feeling suspiciously like exercise or dancing.

It’s worth noting there are real fitness courses available, but I haven’t dug into any of those.

What he was designing against

Jorge doesn't think screens are the problem.

"I don't even see screens or technology as the source of any problem. You go back to the 17th century — a prolific writer or an impassioned artist who spends hours sitting. No one would look at that in a negative way."

His kids make videos, music, and art on screens. To him, these are all tools to be more human and expressive. Instead, he was designing against what he called "infinite access to the local candy shop." He’s describing feeds with content that just keeps on going and potentially even autoplays.

A game that ends is a different object than that. There’s a shape to it, and you’re moving your body instead of sitting still.

The camera in your living room

Jorge's told me privacy was the first design constraint before anything got built — the magnetic camera cover (aka the monocle) is that principle made physical and it’s something I noticed right away. Multiplayer features coming soon are being built the same way, parent-controlled by default.

The bigger thing I keep coming back to is simpler: Most devices are designed to encourage passive consumption, but the Playground is active. And, maybe more importantly, playing together to create connection is exactly the kind of thing many of us want to encourage. Sign me up for a device designed for that.

I reviewed the Nex Playground in February — read that here. You can learn more about the Playground here.

I jokingly wrote that I thought the Good Inside app would be some sort of AI coach that followed me around based on how I first read about it. I originally didn’t think it would be helpful at all. But I always had the wrong impression. Instead, it’s been a useful way to get Dr. Becky's content, delivered in long videos, notifications, and in bite-sized decks I could actually use when I had five minutes. I've continued to use it for a year now and I wanted to share why I recommend it.

In fact, I think the Good Inside app is the single most useful parenting resource I've found and it was an easy re-subscribe for year 2.

There are also new additions like a Family Plan for co-parenting, and “baby” and “teen” sections for advice focused on those ages. I haven’t spent any time with those new areas, but it’s interesting and likely useful expansion.

Bedtime was the key channel from the initial review, it’s the biggest reason I tried the app. And, I’ll be honest, bedtime is an ongoing thing we're working on—which is in itself a framing I learned from Dr. Becky. But bedtime is also going better. Overall, my tolerance for the hard moments and hard bedtimes has improved and I've used what I've learned from Dr. Becky across all my interactions with my kids.

If you want to look at challenging parenting situations in a different way and if you like occasional reminders to tuck away for difficult moments, the Good Inside app is the best investment I've made in my parenting.

Yes, you can probably stitch the advice together from free interviews and content, but I don't think you should. I think it's worth it to have it centralized and curated and the community is a resource I don’t use enough. I’d even recommend turning on notifications so you remember to read and build new mental models for situations.

Four specific ways the app and Dr. Becky's advice have helped me:

"The treasure store." My wife has rebranded thrifting as “going to the treasure store”—very smartly turning it into a fun family activity. Thrifing is not my favorite thing, but I like to see everyone happy. The trouble is that my four-year-old loves small (and large) cute stuffed animals. When our oldest asks to buy something, my initial response is to just say no because most of it is stuff I don’t want in our house.

My wife navigates it differently, probably because she sees the items as having more value and enjoys thrifting.

For a while I couldn't figure out how to navigate it in my own way, but something Dr. Becky about an entirely different topic said made me realize: "[My daughter] really wants this. It's really important to her. And that makes it important." That reframe changed how I approached those interactions. The Good Inside app keeps parenting advice accessible and reminds me that there might be something useful even when I'm not looking for it. Essentially, I'm storing perspectives and making mental connections for when I need them.

Shopping cart competitions. When we go to stores with tiny kid-sized shopping carts, both my kids will want the carts at the same time - and usually find some reason to want the same one. My default response has always been: “let's just share. Why aren't we sharing?” But that doesn't actually work, and I couldn't understand why until Dr. Becky gave me different language to try. Now I slow down and say something like: "I know you want the cart. I know you want it too. Let's take a moment—maybe somebody plays with it for a minute, or maybe there's a way we both can play with it." I don’t actually know what Dr. Becky would say about this moment, but what I’ve taken away is the value of a pause: space for me to think about what's the right approach and how I can show them that I'm hearing both of them and trying to help.

Bedtime together. My kids like to be together at bedtime, but they work themselves up too much if they’re actually together. So we're constantly navigating how to give them some time together and time with us, while managing the energy so they actually go to sleep. The instinct is to save connection for the end of the day, but Dr. Becky's advice made me think about it differently. She suggested looking for small moments of connection earlier in the day or earlier in the night—something as simple as: "I'm really glad that we're here together." It gets ahead of the asking and creates something to lean on when everyone's exhausted at the end of the day. She talks about her own moments doing this, even though she's incredibly busy, and that gives me both ways of thinking about it and permission to actually do it.

Transitions. Leaving for preschool in the morning. Transitioning from screen time into something else we need to do. These used to be friction points where I'd just push through and get frustrated when it didn't work. Based on Dr. Becky's advice, I now think about how to acknowledge where my kids are before I ask them to move. It's something like: "I know this is really fun. We're gonna go do this other thing that you really want to do. We can do it, and we'll be able to come back to this later if we have time." Naming the transition and the difficulty instead of just pulling them away makes a real difference.

I would guess some of you are saying: “Of course. This is all so simple. How could you not know these things?”

And, I know none of this seems complicated. But the right thing to do is not always obvious in the moment when you're frustrated or rushed. And it doesn't all come naturally to all of us, definitely not for me.

I think that’s why I find it useful to have Good Inside and Dr. Becky's thinking available and generally present, even when she's not describing your exact situation. I find I don’t do exactly what she suggests, but the advice creates new ways to think about moments I’m in. And to me, that’s worth it.

Smartphones and tablets are incredible for a wide range of use cases. But every time I use a device or app intentionally designed for one purpose, and designed well, I feel a difference. I hadn't been able to put into words until recently.

When my daughter first took to her Yoto, or put down Pok Pok without a meltdown, or when the whole family ended up playing hungry hippos on the Nex Playground at a family gathering — those moments stuck with me. The best experiences seemed to follow from a device or app designed to deliver in a specific situation.

General-purpose devices like phones and tablets are incredible, but they put a lot of design work back on parents. You have to set them up right, manage the controls, decide what's allowed and when, and stay on top of it as your kids get older. Ash Brandin, author of Power On: Managing Screen Time To Benefit The Whole Family, and who I interviewed here, frames it as three things you're actually managing: access to screens, behavior around screens, and content on the screen. Intentionally designed devices and apps don't eliminate that work, but they reduce it. Someone else already thought hard about the situation you're in.

This really crystallized for me after talking with Nichole Rouillac. She's the CEO of level an industrial design studio with clients like Microsoft, Logitech, Tempo and Nex, a mom, and a self-described "power user" of kids tech. She has a 12-year-old and a four-year-old and has been thinking about this stuff for years, from a different vantage point than most parents.

Nichole and I got in touch when I went looking for the designers of the Nex Playground after I reviewed it. Then we traded notes on the fun of families playing together and jumping around, and she offered to share some broader perspective.

See the full interview here or listen to it on any podcast app.

The power of technology

Nichole's older daughter is neurodivergent and dyslexic. Reading was hard for her, but she's now an avid reader who loves books.

Nichole believes the key was getting her daughter on audiobooks early with a Yoto player and using Osmo to make letter practice physical. "I think without the tech and also the teachers and the collaboration that we had with that, I don't know how we would have gotten her to love reading as much as she does."

I hadn't heard of Osmo before this conversation. It's a mirror that clips to an iPad and reads the surface below it. You play with physical letter tiles and the screen responds.

Nichole used it when her daughter was struggling with reading and writing. "I love the fusion when there's physical toys that you're playing with, but also in combination with technology. When you're actually playing with letters in physical space and then using those to spell, she actually enjoyed learning to read and learning her letters."

Phones and tablets require you to design

Something Nichole said stuck with me: "As soon as they see [the phone] out there, that glowing thing, they want that glowing thing that's in mom's hand. From a very young age, they just get drawn to it. So I keep it away as much as I can."

Every time I pull out my phone, I've created the potential for something great or the potential for one of my kids to get pulled into another direction, toward a distraction or a potentially isolating experience. To avoid this, we have to design some combination of situation and options, which is hard to do consistently. It's almost a relief to find apps and devices that are already designed right for the situation.

The Tonie Box does this for Nichole's youngest. Her four-year-old and her best friend swap characters and change what's playing on their own. No phone involved.

Her older daughter uses the Yoto. Same general category, different design, different age. "She doesn't have to ask me to change the music or the story on my phone. We don't need my phone to do any of that."

Two kids, two stages, two different devices built for where each kid actually is. Nichole didn't land there by accident — and it's something most of the screen time conversation skips entirely. It’s often just “screens” or “no screens”. “Phone” or “no phone” and a;; tech is almost lumped together.

On parental controls and device management

"Use Screen Time" on iOS is reasonable advice. Based on conversations with other parents, it also seems incomplete.

A recent Sesame Street Workshop/Joan Ganz Cooney Center report describes something they call "the family tech cycle" — the idea that families experience technology as an ongoing system, not a single decision. One key finding: parents are absorbing a lot of cognitive and emotional labor that better product design could reduce.

Getting controls right takes real effort. You have to know the device, know the settings, stay on top of it when things change. Nichole does this constantly. "Some of the controls are a little confusing and difficult to figure out," she said. She's also a designer and an early adopter with extensive experience — and she still tinkers. There's also a pull toward simplicity. One device is easier to manage than five. That logic makes sense until it means everything runs through the phone.

There are exceptions to this "designed for one purpose" framing. Nichole's daughter has an Apple Watch — a much more general-purpose device. Her daughter takes SF’s Muni transit home from school alone and can pick up milk and go to the library. Nichole can see where she is, her daughter can call if she needs to. The watch makes that independence possible without opening up social media. But in this case Nichole has taken on the design work herself, configuring a general-purpose device carefully for a specific purpose. It's a great illustration of how it can work, but it takes effort.

Other noteworthy themes from the conversation

Nichole lets her 12-year-old on Roblox and Minecraft with classmates after school, not reluctantly but deliberately. "I don't want her separated from her other classmates because she's not able to socialize." For older kids, some screen time is social participation. The question shifts from how much to what kind and with whom.

Her daughter also codes, writes her own video games, recently won a coding competition. Nichole gives her screen time partly for that. Technology as creative output, not just consumption.

There's also a pattern Nichole described that I’ve written about before: her daughter watches videos to learn things — balloon animals, cooking recipes, crafts — and then goes and makes them. "By the end of the weekend I think we had like 30 or 40 different balloon animals scattered around the house." The screen as a starting point, not the destination.

On the four-year-old end of things: they’re obsessed with Peppa Pig. Nichole: "At bedtime, I'm like, can we just please read something besides Peppa?" Kids go deep on characters and that's fine. Nichole mentions that Tonie is actually good for this — the fixation also offers a form of independence as it’s easy to swap the characters.

And the whole family plays bowling on the Nex Playground together. Four-year-old included. Author Ash Brandin said it well in a previous episode: "Leisure is important. You don't have to learn something. You don't have to improve yourself. You can just have leisure."

Community as a tool for discovery

Nichole mentioned that parents at some schools are signing petitions to delay smartphones, and there are new phones out there too. The Tin Can phone — an internet-connected device that looks like a retro landline — apparently sold out this past holiday season partly because of a desire to keep connection, but avoid the smartphone. Nichole got one for her daughter.

Nichole also suggested something I’ve heard before: find parents whose kids are a few years older than yours and ask them what they'd do differently. Not to copy them. Just to get a sense of what's coming before it arrives. And to this point: I just ordered an Osmo, because I can’t turn down a good recommendation and Nichole was so emphatic about it.

One other way I'm thinking about community: find companies and people with values that seem aligned with yours, and put some trust in the intentionality of their efforts. With well-designed products, you can usually feel the values in the design itself. The monocle on the Nex Playground — the little magnetic camera cover — exists because someone cared about privacy and refused to let it be an afterthought. The shape evokes a Rubik’s cube because it’s supposed to feel like play. And, once you start noticing which things are designed with care, it’s hard to stop.

Had a surreal moment this week—Dr. Becky Kennedy, an incredible parenting coach with millions of followers, mentioned me on Lenny's Podcast, a tech podcast with millions of downloads. It came up during a section about AI. As someone who wrote about how transformative her Good Inside app was for our family's bedtime struggles, it was quite a moment.

But while really fun, that's not why you should listen to this episode.

You should listen because Dr. Becky is talking to a tech/product audience, applying parenting frameworks to workplace leadership. And, I think if you work and have kids, you'll recognize yourself in both halves of the conversation.

A few moments with exceptional resonance:

"Connect before you correct" - You'd never ask a coworker to context-switch mid-flow and then blame them for not listening. But at home with your kid at 7pm? Different story.

"Default to the most generous interpretation" - When someone belabors their point in a meeting: are they being difficult, or do they not feel heard? Same question applies when your kid melts down about something that seems trivial.

"Sturdy leadership" - You can see someone else's emotional experience as real without being overwhelmed by it yourself. You do this when people at work are in a hard spot. But when your toddler has a meltdown? Being the calm, sturdy pilot is harder.

"Optimizing for short-term happiness builds fragility" - If you remove all friction and tough interactions, teams will struggle down the road. Same with kids—if every discomfort gets removed, they never learn to work through it.

Why this matters for technology and parenting:

The principles that make teams effective are the same ones that help kids develop resilience. Dr. Becky's frameworks can help you with your tough parenting moments and the ones you’re less sure about how to approach.

If you're a working parent trying to figure out the hard questions—phones, social media, AI, screen time—this episode is worth your time. Not because it gives you rules, but because it gives you ways of thinking that actually transfer between the contexts you're already living in.

Listen here

And here’s the Andrew Hogan shoutout:

Sometimes you're tired. The kids need something to do, you need to be indoors, and you don't want everyone zoned out watching a show on the couch. But you also don't have the energy to orchestrate an activity. That's the gap the Nex Playground fills for us, and it fills it pretty well.

I think a lot about screens. There’s some guilt to it, but the thoughts are mostly driven by practicality, especially lately. How do we balance the reality that screens are part of our kids' lives with the desire to keep them active and engaged? We don't always have the luxury of being outside. Rain happens. People get sick. Business travel comes up. And, sometimes you just need something to do indoors that doesn't feel completely passive. I also like the idea that someone else, the game designers, can bring creativity and energy and activity into the living room. It’s fun to see what other people design.

I came to the Nex Playground after seeing some of the hype around the holidays. The Wall Street Journal called it the hottest toy of the year, and the story behind it is genuinely interesting: a Silicon Valley startup that started as a basketball training app, pivoted twice, and ended up making a toy that outsold Xbox during Black Friday week. It won a Core77 Design Award and a Good Design Award. So I bought one, curious whether it lived up to all the hype.

The device itself

First Impressions

The thing that struck me first was how small it is. It's about the size of a Rubik's Cube. Three inches on each side. You put it on your TV stand next to a Switch or a PS5 and it looks like a toy itself. Which, I guess, is kind of the point.

The physical design of the console is genuinely good. It was designed by a studio called level, led by two mothers, and you can feel that in the details. The geometric shape seems like a nod to early Nintendo consoles and Rubik's Cubes, but it has its own personality. There's a magnetic privacy cover that snaps on when you're not playing. The colors are bright, not the flat black you'd expect from a gaming device. It feels like someone thought about how this was going to fit into your home.

The packaging is the same level of quality. There are cute illustrations in the manual, fun graphics on the console that show you're in the right spot for the camera. It feels like someone actually cared about the experience from the moment you open the box. We were up and playing in about 10 minutes.

My daughter is four, and during setup she looked at it and said, "I'm going to love this." She hadn't even played it yet. That's when I knew the design was stellar.

The Nex has thoughtful packaging and easy setup

A shot from Nex showing the playful colors and surprisingly small design

Does It Actually Create Active Play?

The Nex Playground bills itself as an "active play system" rather than a console. It's a bit of a positioning trick, aimed at people like me who are conscious of intentional screen time, but it does seem to be more active than other consoles or television, because it’s controlled mostly through body movement. My daughter genuinely gets active playing it. The tracking on the camera is really good for things that involve big motions, whole body poses, big sweeping arm movements. It's not going to replace being outside, but it's a meaningful step up from sitting on the couch.

The Learning Curve

Not everything is smooth sailing. Some of the game controls are really frustrating, especially for a four-year-old. We struggled with a My Little Pony coloring game and one involving riding a horse. There were moments where my daughter asked me to take over because she just couldn't get it to work. I struggled too. The frustration of watching something that should be fun turn into something hard.

My suggestion: talk to your kids in advance about trying the different games and moving on if something isn't clicking. Not every game is going to be a hit, and that's okay. It took us a little while to find our favorites, but once we did, it was worth it.

Because when you find the right game something magical happens. You find Hungry Hippos, and suddenly we’re moving our arms up and down and she’s excited to be chomping the food and in first place. You find a Bluey game involving cooking, start making chopping motions and it's like all is forgiven, by me and by her. The frustration dissolves. One big reason is that these mostly aren't random game characters. They're characters she already cares about. Seeing them in an active, physical game where she's actually moving her body to play with them, it changes the entire dynamic.

What It Actually Is (For Us)

The Nex Playground is not something my daughter asks for. She doesn't ask to play it the way she asks for a show. But if I suggest it, she willingly plays, and we end up having a great time together.

It's a family activity. It works best when we're all playing together. The kids typically play for about 30 minutes, and the four-year-old can play pretty independently. I can work on the couch if I need to. But I probably wouldn't want to be in the other room, especially if there are two of them in the mix. My younger one, almost two, doesn't quite understand the tracking and frequently messes up the game for everyone else. But it’s often still fun.

Several of the games are designed for three or four players, and those create some really great moments. It's a substitute for TV time when we're all playing together and I feel better about it than watching something passively. It's a good thing to mix in.

The Sound

Worth mentioning: the sound can be turned down low without feeling like you're missing anything. If you need some quiet while your kids play, that's an option.

Who Is This For?

Four feels like the sweet spot. My almost-two-year-old isn't ready for it. The directions are too complex, and the tracking doesn't work well with younger kids in the room. But for a four-year-old? It clicks.

We play it more than our Switch, though we don't play either one all that much. If another parent asked me whether to get a Nex Playground or a Switch, I'd say Nex, unless you yourself want to play the Switch a lot. This one feels designed for your kids, and it actually gets them moving.

The Bottom Line

It’d be easy to substitute a phone or tablet for a similar sort of indoor entertainment. There are fantastic games now like Pok Pok and no shortage of long and short form videos to watch. You could get lost watching Primitive Technology together seeing someone create and fire pottery with neolithic methods. Or, you could watch cute animal videos together. 

But that isn't really the point. This is kind of like saying you can cut strawberries with a butter knife. Technically a substitute, but not really. The point in this kind of device is active entertainment. And when you find a game designed with care, potentially with characters your kids love, any frustration along the way is completely forgiven. You're just laughing, jumping, waving your arms, and playing together.

The Nex Playground is a nice to have. It's not essential, but I'd buy it again. At $249 for the console, which comes with five pre-installed games (Fruit Ninja, Go Keeper, Starri, Party Fowl, and Whac-a-Mole), plus an optional $89 Play Pass for the full game catalog, it's not cheap. I didn't try it without the Play Pass, but I think I'd want more than the base five games. So budget around $338 if you're going all in. For comparison, a Switch 2 with Mario Kart is $499.

Since talking with Kristen Kim about Culture Kids, the award-winning podcast she runs with her son, 8-year-old Asher, I’ve been thinking about parenting values. Specifically, how many of Kristen’s values are embedded in the podcast and in the way she talked about her family’s use of tech and screens.

Culture Kids is a “live, immersive audio adventure” that explores places, holidays, and historical moments around the globe through sound. You can watch my interview with Kristen here or listen on any podcast app.

My family discovered the Culture Kids podcast when we bought the Yoto for our daughter and now it’s a long-car-ride staple.

But I’ve actually never really thought much intentionally about my values as a parent, and I thought reviewing Kristen’s comments might spark some ideas. Some key points from the interview:

On screen time

Kristen keeps her rules simple:

No screen time for her 5- and 8-year-olds Monday through Thursday unless it’s homework-related. On Saturdays and Sundays they get one to one-and-a-half hours.

They can choose what they want to watch from a range of options, and she guides them toward things that “spark their brain, not smush their brain.” A check-in afterward adds a layer of reflection. She described how she asks Asher how he felt or what he learned after time spent watching someone play a video game. His answer shows both creativity and an eight-year-old’s sense of humor:

“Well now I know mom how to unlock this level. And it takes a lot of brain power, I promise.”

To me, the intentional reflection and the cheeky answer are just as interesting as the limit.

Noticing wonderful and interesting things

A major theme for Kristen is encouraging kid’s innate sense sense of wonder. And, framing things as interesting to observe, even if they’re different.

Kristen says she wants to convey that “everywhere you look things have a story. There’s something so amazing and magical and incredible about everything around us.”

And:

“I want to get in a habit of making children feel like that there’s so much to learn and enjoy in this world, right? Whether it’s sports or arts or skateboarding.”

She looks for small moments, like flowers on the walk to school, cloud shapes, things her kids notice first to help keep that muscle active. She joked that it sounds kind of cheesy to an adult, but it seems like an intentional, and useful practice to me.

And, she says she chooses her words carefully: avoiding saying things are “weird” or “yucky” that are just different or more common in another culture.

Respecting kids as creative partners

Kristen believes kids deserve to feel like true contributors, not add-ons. It comes through in the way she makes Culture Kids with Asher and how it compares to her past work in media:

“Your talent needs to feel like they’re a very integral part of the creative process from start to finish, no matter what age… They all need to feel like this is their project.”

She treats her son as a creative partner who has ideas that matter. She creates time for his questions, lets him reshape scripts, and follows their curiosities. Creativity becomes a muscle she helps her son and daughter strengthen.

Reconciling with things you don’t… “love” (Pokémon, video games, etc.)

Kristen values curiosity and cultural learning. Her kids often bring her straight into topics she wouldn’t choose herself—especially Pokémon.

“[My son] will squeeze in every Pokémon reference imaginable… sometimes we have to edit it out… and then he gets really upset, so we have to negotiate.”

She still finds the entry points within his interests. Pokémon becomes a way to talk about Japan, Japanese storytelling traditions, and cultural influence. Her kids lead her to new places, and she adapts.

Encouraging activity and building the village to support it

Kristen’s kids do a surprising number of extracurriculars. Her five-year-old skateboards. Her eight-year-old does TaeKwonDo, basketball, soccer, chess, and more. Honestly, it sounded overwhelming, so I asked her how she manages it.

Her answer: a five- or six-family neighborhood village. A group that she thoughtfully constructed over recent years.

They trade pickups and drop-offs, cover for each other when someone is sick or working late, and keep things moving through shared planning in spreadsheets. She joked about spending hours editing episodes in the TaeKwonDo studio:

“You will see like a row of parents doing the same… a quarter of our episodes were edited at the TaeKwonDo studio.”

But there’s another side: “You can create that village, but you have to be that village yourself too.” She gives the example of bringing food to another family dealing with a sick household. The whole structure and choices support the kind of life she wants for her kids.

A balanced media diet and the power of audio

One of the most striking parts of Culture Kids is its effective and interesting use of audio. Music, sound cues, and vocal storytelling shape the experience in a way that encourages imagination.

Kristen says “[sound] helps evoke sense of imagination and creativity… children form their own visuals.”

She mentioned research showing that listening activates the same parts of the brain as reading. In my own life, I’ve found audio books and podcasts offer reliable ways to learn when I may not be able to sit down to read and know many others feel the same.

So what do I value as a parent?

This conversation led me to think more deliberately about my own parenting values. I know curiosity and creativity matter to me. I love “why” questions. I’m the person who will spend an entire day in a Natural History Museum and leave feeling like I needed more time.

But I realized I hadn’t spent much time thinking about how to make space for this kind of curiosity for my kids. I’m sure it’s happening and of course we go to zoos and children’s museums, but it could be more intentional.

I also thought about values like independence and confidence and how our family is still figuring those out. We’ve only recently begun having our four-year-old carry her plate to the sink. There is so much room to help her build confidence and capability, in small steps that eventually make a big difference.

Kristen makes great points about the value and importance of community, but beyond being kind and trying help others I think I could do a lot more here.

And now I’m of course wondering where technology and screens fit into all of this. In Kristen’s case, the Culture Kids podcast clearly helps her encourage curiosity and connection. And, she encourages shows like Emily’s Wonder Lab and thoughtful reflection after watching. For our family, I think there are places where we’ve done a good job connecting it to values and places where we could be more intentional.

This started as a conversation about a podcast our family loves, but I think it’s a prompt to look at the values underneath our everyday choices.

We all have enough going on, so I hope it’s not another thing to worry about. Instead, I hope it’s an invitation to reflect on what we already know we care deeply about.

This post is by my friend KD. She’s incredible, credentialed, and I value hearing how she thinks. We’d love your reactions to this review! Do you agree? Take a different approach? Use a different product?

My eldest started second grade this year, which felt like a huge milestone for our family — she was finally ready to ride the bus! I was thrilled. No more drop-off line traffic! With a new baby at home, this change promised extra time for baby care, self-care, and a few more quiet work-from-home hours.

That first morning, I waved as the bus pulled away…and then promptly went inside to cry and obsessively Google reviews for kid-tracking smartwatches while battling intrusive thoughts: How will I know she actually makes it to school? Will other kids be nice to her on the bus? Does the driver know where she’s going? Will she remember which bus to get on to come home? How did my mom let me do this as a kindergartener?!

Once I got past the panic, I spiraled into the existential questions: Do I really need to track her? Don’t I trust the systems that exist to keep kids safe? Would it be a gateway device leading to something else sooner than I intend? Do I need to know where she is every minute? Is this unwarranted or unsanctioned surveillance? Am I...Big Mother now?

My partner and I debated whether an AirTag would be enough. We’ve used an AirTag inside a specially made wristband before — it’s given us a sense of security in case our kid ever gets lost in a crowd, though we’ve never actually needed it. We’ve spent a lot of time talking to our kids about staying safe and have built deep connections with them that ensure they’re always looking and checking in with us when we’re out and about.

Ultimately, we liked the idea of being able to communicate with her directly — but definitely didn’t want to hand over a full-blown Apple Watch. That felt like too much access, too soon and we worried would bring more devices. We also wrestled with how much to tell her: would knowing she was being tracked make her more anxious about being away from us?

In the end, we talked it through with her. We explained that the watch was just another way for us to keep her safe, and we made a clear rule — it stays in her backpack at school (it falls under the no-device policy anyway).

I’m not much of a product review reader, but after seeing solid ratings for the TickTalk 5, I bought one — from that shopping app we all try to avoid spending too much time on.

Some of the TickTalk 5’s features. Images courtesy MyTickTalk.

Now that we’ve had it for a while, I’d say it’s...fine. The TickTalk 5 does what it promises. I like that it feels secure, that her data is protected, and that the parent portal gives me control over who can contact her (only me and Dad). And it serves our original purpose — it shows that she makes it to school and back on the bus.

It also has some silly features I didn’t think we’d use, but she loves them — she’s been telling us cute jokes and animal trivia lately, which I realized come straight from her watch. After listening to Andrew’s interview with Ash, my biggest takeaway was that it’s okay — maybe even good — to let kids enjoy screens or tech for fun, the same way we do, instead of feeling like every moment of screen time needs an explicit educational purpose.

I don’t use the tracking typically, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

The watch’s top features and a quick reaction on each:

1. Stay Connected: Voice, video calls, and messaging keep you in touch anytime, anywhere.

She loves to call us occasionally, even just while at home. Seven-year-old phone etiquette is nonexistent, so it’s pretty funny to be called, quickly asked, “Mom, where’s my—” (no greeting), and then hear a quick hang-up once she’s gotten her answer. It’s something I appreciate getting the opportunity to discuss and work on.

2. Safety First: Real-time tracking, AI-powered SmartPin that learns and improves GPS accuracy, instant SOS & 911 calls with app alerts, and unknown number blocking.

We don’t really track her on a typical day, but I like having the option for those times when the bus is a little later than usual and my mom anxiety kicks in. I can check and see where she is on the route and confirm that indeed, just as planned, she’s making her way home.

3. Kid-Friendly Apps: Reminders, activity tracker, and free music streaming keep your child engaged.

New jokes and animal facts come from the apps, which are cute and age-appropriate. The music is a little annoying because it’s a lot of the same songs on repeat, but she likes it. You can turn the music feature on or off, most of the apps are included and there are not too many.

4. Full Parental Control: Manage contacts, set Focus modes, and approve app users for easy supervision.

I’m always glad to have contact management on the parent side. One of my biggest apprehensions with this type of device is not filtering who can be in such close contact with her. I appreciate being able to manage contacts (only me and Dad for now) and review her call logs. The watch blocks all other attempts and gives you a log of those as well. I haven’t used the other controls yet, but I could see needing them in the future.

To end on a personal note: those first-day worries have melted away — and I’d say only about 10% thanks to this tracking watch. Most days she goes without it because she forgets to charge it. The bus driver is amazing — she personally walks my daughter across the street every afternoon at drop-off and greets us with a smile (so grateful). My kid has made several bus buddies and often they pull up blasting “Golden” from K-Pop Demon Hunters over the bus speakers — so who even needs a personal device?

Other parent.tech posts you might like:

Should Your Kids Use ChatGPT For Homework?

Reflections on an MIT study about generative AI, learning and school

www.parent.tech/p/should-your-kids-use-chatgpt-for-homework-c028

Review: I Wanted To Try An AI Parenting Coach — But The Good Inside App Is Better

How Dr. Becky’s Good Inside app redefined my approach to parenting challenges

www.parent.tech/p/review-i-wanted-to-try-an-ai-parenting-coach-but-the-good-inside-app-is-better

Kids Need Screen Time Skills, And Parents Might Too

Takeaways From Interviewing Ash Brandin (IG: TheGamerEducator) On What They're Teaching 230k Families And Their Upcoming Book

www.parent.tech/p/kids-need-screen-time-skills-and-parents-might-too-4f

Behind the Scenes: Redefining Kids' Screen Time With Pok Pok

Pok Pok's CEO and CCO on Screens, Parenting, And Designing for Calm Play

www.parent.tech/p/behind-the-scenes-redefining-kids-screen-time-with-pok-pok

Parenting, Technology, and Progress: A Conversation with Dr. Susan Walker

Interviewing an expert to ask: "What should parents look for in the technology they use?"

www.parent.tech/p/parenting-technology-and-progress-a-conversation-with-dr-susan-walker

How bad is it to make short form video a reward? A YouTube Short, a TikTok?

We’ve got two little kids, and everyone needs to get ready on weekday mornings. It’s incredibly helpful if the four-year-old gets her clothes and shoes on and brushes her teeth mostly on her own. She can do it, but only when motivated.

You know what’s really been motivating her? Animal videos.

So now we occasionally watch one after everyone’s ready. They’re usually favorites I’ve saved from TikTok over the years, or Shorts we look up about a specific animal.

A monkey eating an orange. A baby aardvark. A panda.

Sure, we could use a sticker chart instead, but she really does like pretending to be a squirrel or a seal.

I’ve seen other parents turn getting ready into a race—who can get their shoes on or brush their teeth faster—and I do that too sometimes. But it’s a lot less mental effort to turn to a cute animal video.

That’s kind of the point: it feels like cheating to use short video as a reward, but how bad is it really? I think about the longer-term implications. The short format could be problematic, leaving less room for story or patience. And the “reward” might put too much emphasis on the phone.

But for us, it’s working.

I like watching animal behavior clips with my kids. The moments are short and calm. And afterward, everyone’s happy and we move on. On the whole, it’s probably reduced frustration in the house.

We do have a guardrail: we try not to watch while eating unless we really want to learn about something together—like what kind of food an anteater eats or how panda digestion works.

In some sense, it’s ridiculous that I’m even thinking about this. But here I am. Maybe some of you are thinking about similar things too.

Thoughts? Is this something you do in your house?

In case you missed it:

This isn’t the first time short form video has factored into my family’s entertainment.

From TikTok Ban To Imaginative Fox Play

A Reminder That Consumption Can Turn Into Creation

www.parent.tech/p/from-tiktok-ban-to-imaginative-fox-play

Ash Brandin helped me think more deeply about screen time and how its actually useful. Loved this interview. Since then, they’ve released a book! Here’s the review.

Kids Need Screen Time Skills, And Parents Might Too

Takeaways From Interviewing Ash Brandin (IG: TheGamerEducator) On What They're Teaching 230k Families And Their Upcoming Book

www.parent.tech/p/kids-need-screen-time-skills-and-parents-might-too-4f

Learning More, Worrying Less

Last week, Fast Company writer Nicole Gull McElroy wrote an interesting article on a range of new products aimed at parents thinking about kids and tech use, especially phones. I was glad to be included and to share a bit about my path toward being more intentional. An excerpt:

The article highlighted both the concern and optimism I feel—and my belief that by understanding more about what’s happening, we can make better choices for our kids and ourselves. From my post on “Why Parent Tech Matters”:

Since then, the questions haven’t stopped: Why is phone use so controversial? What about toddlers and iPads? How should we think about kids AI use? What about their exposure to AI-generated content?

Answers are rarely as simple as headlines suggest, but we’re never without options.

Finding Trusted Sources, Products And Advice

The idea behind Parent Tech is that by examining the evidence and talking to experts, we can develop more intentional paths forward. And by learning from parents with kids in different stages, we can make decisions that feel more grounded that get us the benefits of technology while minimizing downsides.

What’s also become clear to me is just how many new products exist—and how vulnerable we are to their promises. Marketing around parenting is powerful. It often speaks directly to our anxieties, and it’s easy to get caught in cycles of overcorrection.

Sources I typically turn to for product research like Reddit and Facebook can move from helpful to overwhelming in a single thread. And, often advice starts in a helpful place while gradually sliding to something unreasonable. Books about legitimate issues can lose nuance once their ideas are streamlined into a clean, persuasive story.

Our kids probably aren’t falling behind and there are reasonable times to hand over an iPad. Sometimes kids genuinely need the connectivity of a phone because of their schedule, and video games can offer real opportunities to build skills.

The question, then, is how we get the benefits of what’s possible without the downsides. Is it about the design philosophy behind the products? Boundaries? Something else?

I’ve found a lot of balance through sources like Pok Pok’s Melissa Cash and Esther Huybreghts, Dr. Becky’s Good Inside, Ash Brandin’s book and philosophy, Emily Oster (Parent Data) and Common Sense Media. And I’ve learned just as much from talking to other parents, as Dr. Susan Walker suggested in our interview, especially experts in my life like my friend KD.

Like most things, the more we understand the forces at play, the better our decisions can be. I’m grateful to have so many of you thinking about this with me, learning as we go, and sharing what’s working.

I’m proud that Fast Company included Parent Tech, and I’m thankful for everyone who’s helped make it what it is so far—experts, friends, readers, and other parents who keep asking good questions.

Looking forward to continuing to explore how families can thrive with more intentional technology use.

When I interviewed Ash Brandin about their new book there was a moment I shortened the title to introduce them. I just said “Ash’s new book Power On” and the conversation could have flowed from there. But it didn’t.

Instead, Ash paused and read the entire title: Power On: Managing Screen Time To Benefit The Whole Family.

And they did it because the subtitle is really important: Benefit the whole family.

You can listen to the conversation on the podcast or read my thoughts on the skills I realized I needed to develop after the discussion.

In Ash’s mind, screen time IS a tool for the whole family. We think about it as just something that only affects the child but it’s more.

Screen time is a way for parents to get time to make dinner knowing their child is safe, for a kid to learn about a topic. It can help a child practice a skill like planning or bring us together around shared content. And yes, sometimes screen time is just a way for a kid to get a break and exert control and autonomy.

There are lots of other ways to do those things, too. But sometimes screen time is the best one and will help the whole family the most.

I think this reframe helps us make decisions as caregivers. Instead of seeing how we can go as screen light as possible, we are thinking about everyone’s well-being so we can also do our best jobs as parents.

Ash starts with context about screen time usage and longer term impacts and reminds us that fears also aren’t new. Early on, beloved childrens program Sesame Street faced concerns from experts that the repetitive music would reduce attention spans and overtax nervous systems causing harm to children. The key in this is being intentional about screen time usage, not letting it just happen.

The book follows this context with effective tools for intentionality, namely the ABCs of screen time and the idea of using words like “notice” to reduce conflict. The ABCs are: access to screens, behavior around screens, and the content on the screen. For some parents this is review, for others it may give new language or strategies.

But if I’m honest the biggest unlock was the wider screen time framing and reminder that screen time can be a benefit, if we use it well.

There are many actors, circumstances and context in the family, all creating unique circumstances. Screens and games may be part of all of it, not inherently bad or good. And screen time is something we can modify in many ways to support our families. Ash reminds us that too much fear around screens or technology can blind us to making the right decisions for our complex selves and environments. It’s about screens, but it applies to many things: including phones, social media. Unobstructed, thoughtless access probably isn’t the right choice, intentionality is.

If you’re thinking about these topics, I think Ash’s book is a great resource and I’m glad they wrote it.

This post is from my friend Katherine “KD” Saribay. Hope you enjoy! - Andrew

Parenting three kids under eight — including a newborn — means my brain is constantly juggling snacks, naps, and the general chaos of everyone’s calendar and daily schedule.

As much as I love being creative and hands-on with them, most days my brain is running on fumes. I’ve used AI here and there in my professional life and realized I could use a few tricks to keep my kids entertained or outsource some of my mental load. I would never say that tech could replace good parenting or connection but I’ve found that using a few smart tools can make the daily grind a little easier.

Here are three real-life ways I’ve used AI lately to keep my kids engaged, fed, and happy… and maybe save a little bit of my sanity.

Create “homework” for my bored summer kid

It’s the end of summer and we’re somewhat out of creative non-screen ways to keep my 7 year old entertained. All toys have been exhausted, and there are only so many times we can listen to Moana on the Tonie box. We’ve been writing “homework” ourselves in a notebook for her — also a big mental load that’s sometimes fun, but sometimes we could use a break from. Here was my prompt for ChatGPT:

“Write a homework sheet for a child going into 2nd grade with math problems, silly sentence prompts, and a scavenger hunt they can do indoors.”

The result was pretty good, and I only had to change a few things before printing and handing it to my delighted almost-2nd grader. She was occupied for a good 20 minutes. Then we expanded the Mad Lib–style paragraphs it came up with using ChatGPT, and I prompted her to draw pictures that went with her stories. She was busy the whole day with some breaks in between.

Create a packed lunch menu for camp

My school district does many amazing things for our kiddos, including providing breakfast and lunch. So I was really out of practice when it came time for my kid to go to camp this summer. Here was my prompt:

“Create a packed lunch menu for my 7-year-old for 5 days. Make it healthy but also kid-friendly and easy for me. I have ice packs to include, but there is no refrigeration or microwave access. Create a grocery list to go with it.”

Then I made it printable since my kid also likes to preview everything — even her school’s menu. This was pretty helpful, and I didn’t have her asking me what was for lunch every day. Plus, it saved me some mental capacity. I think in the future, using the menu, she’d even be able to pack some of it herself!

Write a bedtime story

Sometimes we get tired of reading the same books over again, even with frequent library visits. There’s also something fun about turning off the lights and telling a story, having the kids close their eyes to imagine the story. Here’s a recent prompt from my 7-year-old:

“Write a silly bedtime story about a pigeon who has babies in the middle of the night. Make it sweet and only 3 minutes to read.”

It gave me a very cute and silly story, Penny the Pigeon’s Midnight Surprise. There were a few strange parts, so I recommend doing a preview scan if you’re like Ron Burgundy and automatically read everything on the prompter.

Try it out! Give the prompts to ChatGPT or Claude and see what comes back. And, reply with what you’re using AI for.

What if managing screens and video games is less about enforcing rules and more about building skills—for both kids and parents? Games like Minecraft, Roblox, and Mario Kart aren’t just passively consumed - they can teach life skills to kids. But to harness screen time it’s not just the kids that need to build skills, it’s parents too.

That’s my conclusion from a conversation with Ash Brandin (IG: Gamer Educator) who walked me through their experience as a teacher, their philosophy, and their upcoming book: Power On: Managing Screen Time To Help The Whole Family. You can watch the interview below or find it on any podcast app. (edit: I also reviewed the book after it came out)

I am a huge video game fan and I grew up playing video games. Mostly I was limited to about an hour a day in a family room or on a shared computer, but I also played a gameboy for a while. I played Zelda, Mario, Fifa, Madden, Pokemon, Civilization, Age of Empires, Total Annihilation, Unreal Tournament, Goldeneye, World of Warcraft, Everquest, Halo and many others. I have fond memories of going to arcades and friend’s houses and playing other games. The list of games I loved is so long I had to stop listing them

It all had a profound impact: I’ve written before that my career as an industry analyst is directly linked to researching how to be better at games; My love of history and culture is connected to playing Sid Meier’s Civilization; I built leadership skills through helping teams win and guiding groups through dungeons.

The list goes on.

But not everybody has the same feelings about video games. And, games are different now. There are more lootboxes and streaks, and games are much more social earlier. I also benefited from structures my parents created and played on a different set of devices. There were concerns about video games, but I think they are dwarfed by today’s screen time feelings.

While getting more intentional about screens as a parent I discovered Pok Pok, a Montessori-inspired, calm, game collection with a stellar design philosophy. Through that process I found some unexpected lessons from that game and learning to manage my daughter’s appreciation for it.

Through that I discovered Ash, TheGamerEducator on Instagram. They have almost 15 years of teaching experience, 230k Instagram followers and the previously mentioned upcoming book.

Ash too had an origin story where games were just a thing they did, not something taboo or problematic. When I interviewed them they focused on the skills kids can learn to have more successful screen time, some of the ones mentioned:

• Time management for older kids

• How to keep themselves safe and what’s ok to share in a social setting

• How to stop doing something when it’s time to transition - even if it’s fun

But my biggest takeaway was that I needed to strengthen some of my skills to help my kids. It seems like I need to work on noticing my daughter’s behaviors and the situation, identifying how to set boundaries, and evaluate the impact of content. There’s a need to create open conversations around screens and games and the incentives of the creators of the games. And, I should unlearn some of the concerns around screens and smartphones to turn the temperature down.

Maybe the most powerful takeaway on gaming and screens from Ash: “Leisure is important. You don’t have to learn something. You don’t have to improve yourself. You can just have leisure, your kids can have leisure.”

Some of the other areas we explore:

• How Ash’s teaching background connects to gaming

• Why it’s helpful to view video games in a more neutral (vs negative) way

• How to identify the skills your kids might need to support better screen time

• Why guns might not be the biggest concern in a game and what are the concerns to look for (big hint: help set up their account to understand the incentives to play)

• How to help kids learn through games and the importance of intrinsic motivation

• Why Ash is so passionate about discussing gaming, positive screen time and learning

• Techniques to help kids and parents have more fun playing games together - including the use of accessibility settings

Hope you find this interesting and helpful! And, let me know if there are other gaming topics you want to hear about.

A new MIT study claims that using ChatGPT and generative AI hurts your critical thinking skills, but that conclusion misses the point. And, misinterpretation will be problematic for parents, kids, and teachers.

The study title is pretty dire: “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt When Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.” Meanwhile, Time’s wasn’t better: ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study. Alarming isn’t it? However, analyzing the study and current context gives parents (and all of us) helpful guidance, especially if you’re asking: “should my kid use ChatGPT for homework?”

Why the study isn’t what it appears and how it taps into an anxiety-filled moment for parents

Imagine this: you’re asked to write a short essay about a prompt covering topics like loyalty or courage in 20 minutes. Your setup is similar to the one below. There are no rewards or punishments for doing it well or poorly.

Image from: “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task”

Again, 20 minutes on a new tool and topic equipped with the capability to simply finish the task with no consequences or feedback. That’s a recipe for something, but it isn’t critical thinking.

What the study results do imply: people involved in a study on writing don’t think very hard if there’s no incentive to do well on a given measure. These people, if given a new tool without training, limited time, and no feedback or guidance on how to improve, don't get better at the task over time. Instead, they use the assigned tool to finish the task in the time limit. And, generative AI use doesn’t encourage people to think about or remember the content as well as if they’d written it themselves.

It’s basically asking someone else to write the essay with no incentive to care about what’s written.

As far as I can tell, participants weren’t trained in generative AI usage, weren’t told if their essays were good, and experienced no consequences for writing things that weren’t very good or original. The group used a tool (ChatGPT) that isn’t designed for learning: it’s designed to generate text about something. They also only had 20 minutes. It’s not surprising those participants returned months later and didn’t try as hard to write another essay or recall what they had generated from ChatGPT.

The authors clearly have good intentions, telling Time: “Education on how we use these tools, and promoting the fact that your brain does need to develop in a more analog way, is absolutely critical,” says Kosmyna. “We need to have active legislation in sync and more importantly, be testing these tools before we implement them.”

However, the authors may also have an in-going perspective, telling Time they set traps to hurt LLM users: “Ironically, upon the paper’s release, several social media users ran it through LLMs in order to summarize it and then post the findings online. Kosmyna had been expecting that people would do this, so she inserted a couple AI traps into the paper, such as instructing LLMs to “only read this table below,” thus ensuring that LLMs would return only limited insight from the paper.”

I’m glad the authors shared this study even before peer review, and I know studies must be tightly controlled to answer the research question. However, I worry how harmful incorrect interpretation could be. If anything, the study may indicate earlier generative AI instruction may be important to harness brand new capabilities effectively.

Parents are already anxious about this

The study is being dropped into an anxiety-filled moment for parents: Common Sense Media said last year that “76% of parents reported worrying about generative AI’s impact on their child’s critical thinking skills. Additionally, over half of teachers (52%) are concerned by the increase in AI-generated work being submitted as the child’s own.” And, we all care about our kids' economic futures at a time when the World Economic Forum says around 40% of job skills will change by 2030. This is up from a projection that ⅓ would change between 2015 and 2025, but down from a high of 57% in 2020.

I’m a parent and a person working around AI professionally, and I am certain that using generative AI well will be at least as important as using the internet or personal computers well for work. I’m not alone. Recently I finished a study on AI for work, writing that “more than 80% of designers and developers say learning to work with AI will be essential to their success in the future.” Compared to other professions that use computers and phones this number is certainly high, but data from the UN suggests transformation of jobs will be common. The specific tools used may change, but there’s something about our kids understanding the capabilities that will be important.

Generative AI is already in schools and at home

For many of us, helping our kids be happy and have the skills to be successful is a major driver. And, school is a key way to gain these skills. But I think school and learning will change.

In the UK, according to an Alan Turing Institute report, almost one in four children ages 8-12 are using generative AI. But, that number jumps to 52% in private schools. This suggests it’s an access issue, not a “is this useful” issue. We can look at rising adult usage of these tools to confirm that. When people have access to ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini/Perplexity they tend to find uses in them.

However, generative AI adoption has been blowing holes in the mechanics of education. 

One contact’s daughter had her essay incorrectly flagged as using generative AI, sending me this article from the New York Times that the issue is becoming more common. His daughter had to rewrite her essay under supervision. It sounded like a big waste of time and a stress-generator for everyone involved. Alpha School is making headlines by using an AI-powered program to teach for 2 hours a day, using the rest of the school day for guided projects, self-reporting good results from its small group. Meanwhile, ⅗ teachers used generative AI in their work last year, most commonly for lesson planning and research.

Colleges are engaged in a kind of student-teacher tug of war where professors and students use LLMs to finish tasks and do their best to get the right results while complaining about the other using too much AI. The New York Times reports the percentage of higher ed instructors using generative AI doubled to more than ⅓ from last year to this year. Anthropic analyzed student usage of its tool, finding significant adoption and raising the same critical thinking concerns as this MIT study.

The authors acknowledge some of the benefits to learning from generative AI, writing:

“One of the most unique features of LLMs is their ability to provide contextualized, personalized information [8]. Unlike conventional search engines, which rely on keyword matching to present a list of resources, LLMs generate cohesive, detailed responses to user queries. LLMs also are useful for adaptive learning: they can tailor their responses based on user feedback and preferences, offering iterative clarification and deeper exploration of topics [9]. This allows users to refine their understanding dynamically, fostering a more comprehensive grasp of the subject matter [9]. LLMs can also be used to realize effective learning techniques such as repetition and spaced learning [8].”

So should your kid use ChatGPT for homework?

Blanket advice to avoid generative AI seems wrong. However, this brings us to the question: should your kids use ChatGPT for homework? In thinking it through I turned to The Learning Agency, Common Sense Media, and The Alan Turing Institute. The answer seems to be yes with oversight and some caveats:

1. Read about generative AI on your own first. Here’s a great guide from Common Sense Media. Crucially, remember that generative AI tools will make things up and many of the tools like ChatGPT will provide full, unfettered access to the internet. This isn’t that different from the caution many of us feel about our kids’ access to the internet. 

2. Talk to your kids. What do they know about generative AI? Are their friends using it? Have they used it? How do they feel about it? Do they know it hallucinates things that sound very real? Dr Mhairi Aitken, Senior Ethics Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, shared this: “children have important and nuanced opinions when it comes to the benefits and risks of generative AI. Children’s experiences with this technology are significantly different from those of adults, so it is crucial that we listen to their perspectives to understand their particular needs and interests.”

3. Develop a plan to help kids engage critically with generative AI. Planning and intentional tech usage have been my main takeaways from Parent Tech. Knowing the answer to questions like: what shows to watch? What games to play? For how long and when? And, parents should have an idea of general boundaries and ground rules. Critical in this planning would be ways to help kids engage with the topics and remind them continuously that every generative AI tool will make things up. 

   The Learning Agency’s advice is very age dependent: “For young children, there are tools that use AI and automatic speech recognition for core skills, such as literacy development. These can be good tools to supplement what your child is doing in the classroom and can serve as an educational screen time option. For older students, I would encourage them to first start by learning what AI does, how it functions, and how to be critical consumers of the information they receive from AI.”

4. Don’t generate a final work product, unless learning isn’t important. The MIT study pretty conclusively proves that recall of information is not as good if there’s less effort spent creating it. And, knowing enough about different topics to connect them is essential to creativity. I think creativity is one of the most critical skills for a kid to practice as the ability to think of metaphors, history, and other rich sources of reframing and inspiration can’t be understated. So, the attitude: “They can just look things up” isn’t right. The study also shows people can become overwhelmed with too much output from generative AI, particularly given time limits.

   Instead, help your kids use generative AI tools like ChatGPT to get new ideas, new sources, new angles and further engage with an idea they already have.

5. Consider using ChatGPT as an editor with oversight. Buried in the original MIT study is the finding that asking for suggestions on existing essays engages the brain differently. This is how I find the most success, writing thoughts and asking for input as well as more questions to answer. I also often ask ChatGPT to edit as little as possible and preserve as much of my voice as possible. However, ChatGPT likely requires significant oversight for kids as it can pull broadly from the internet, which could be problematic. On the other hand, ChatGPT is ubiquitous, affordable and pretty easy to use for many purposes, making it useful for quick editing if a kid can sift through what to do with its output.

6. Find tools designed for learning goals, age, subject, and with a philosophy you agree with. One major issue here is that ChatGPT isn’t specifically designed for learning or creative writing or research. It’s a general purpose tool and there’s likely something designed for this use case. The Learning Company suggested this list of resources from Edtech Insiders, but I haven’t spent enough time with it to have strong opinions. I’d look for an application that encourages exploration, proactively asks questions, and tailors itself to the user. And, I’d think about who was behind it. An interesting analogy is Sesame Street and TV. Sesame Street was invented with the idea of using advertising techniques to sell pro-social messages. So, who can do that well now for AI? I’m thinking about companies like Khan Academy and Pok Pok but actively researching more.

7. Managing generative AI is a skill that’s worth practicing. Directing another person or entity is a critical skill for kids to understand. And, the paper found participant’s brains worked differently when working with ChatGPT vs writing on their own. If this is an important skill that is distinct, shouldn’t we help our kids practice it, just like they practice working in groups?

Final thought

We're in a strange moment, but it's not the first time new technology has upended how we learn. Books, television, and search engines all sparked worries like this too. Even the quote above about “traditional search engine-based writing” could only have been written in the last few decades. During this research process I said, “Hopefully schools figure this out before my kids get older,” and a connection, the same one whose daughter was wrongly flagged for using AI replied, “Who knows, kids / people will always be figuring out ways to game the system no matter what generation or what technology is popping :)”

Wise words that we should all keep adapting. And, crucially, I wrote this first without generative AI. So at worst, I’ve sharpened my own thinking.

I’ve been working on complex newsletters like: “should you let your kids use ChatGPT for their homework?” And “should kids have AI friends?” Both have been too complex to finish and frankly just felt weird to send on Father’s Day.

Instead, I want to share something I rediscovered with you. Finding and watching this video created a bonding moment with my four-year-old. It’s a slow video with no explanation about what’s going on or why. But, if you like thinking about technology and the progression of humanity I think your family might enjoy watching it too:

For us the video started conversations about what life was like before electricity, cars, and even before smartphones. My daughter’s main question: “how did they build houses?”

The creator, Primitive Technology, has 10M+ subscribers and more than a decade of projects. These were a go-to during 2020 and I’m glad to rediscover the channel during a happier time.

Happy Father’s Day to those you celebrate and hope you enjoy!

This interview is with my friend Hova. I thought she’d have some great stories and advice and she didn’t disappoint. Her house sounds fun and her kids sound lucky. I hope you enjoy it!

How old are your kids? 

I have two younger kiddos: L, 4 years old and Z, 6 years old.

What's the coolest thing you've seen your kids do with a device, app, or screen?

Since my kiddos never knew a time without tech they have fully accepted tech's unlimited possibility and use it creatively. We don't let them use devices often yet, but we do include them when we're building things with tech. A cute example happened during science fair planning for my oldest kiddo. One of the project ideas was to make a robot that changed color with the temperature and we were brainstorming how to do it. Out of nowhere, my youngest (who was not supposed to be involved) said: "Oh, if the robot knows the temperature, why not have it tell us if we need a jacket?". While I was stuck in the weeds fixated on the mechanics of the solution, she was already thinking ahead imagining how it could add real value. So proud!

Another time, after repeated requests to use my phone (usually a firm "no" from me) they finally convinced me by saying they needed to take a picture. Whenever a kiddo NEEDS to take a photo i'm super curious so I gave it to them. It turns out, they were playing a notoriously dark, "lights-off" maze level in Mario Wonder and the picture was of the maze before the lights went out. They had the idea to use that momentary full view at the start of the level to create a visual map to navigate the maze in the dark. If I would have had this technology as a kid I think I would have been a lot better at video games.

What's been the most frustrating thing about a device, app or screen?

Ending screen time can be a real nightmare for everyone involved. We used to get really frustrated until we realized that we were actually the problem. Imagine someone switching off your TV when you're hooked on a story (you wouldn't be happy either). Our solution now is to give a 5-minute warning with a visual timer rather than just cutting it off cold turkey. We've also started using this technique when switching tasks in general (ex: bath time to dinner time, work to play time, etc) and it's been a game changer for everyone. Another thing we swear by to manage tv screen time is hooking up every single TV to smart outlets controlled by the Kasa app that magically turn on during specific times of the day for a specific period of time that just happen to line up with ideal times during the weekend. 

Additionally, It's frustrating how much garbage is out there for children's tv programming these days. We've been trying to curate to the best of our efforts but other times they're just really into a heart warming documentary about an otter or learning things from the Magic School Bus and I.. watch it with them.

Is there something that's different about their use of technology than you expected? Or something you decided needed to change?

A recent incident with my oldest kiddo really drove home how much their tech usage influences them. When we took them to their first movie in a movie theatre they got antsy halfway through the movie and asked me to "touch it to see how much more time is left" like it was a movie on Netflix. I laughed out loud during a tense, quiet scene at that. It's a funny story, but it also made me think about something unexpected: do we over complicate the concept of human intelligence vs AI intelligence? Aren't our actions largely predictions based on past experiences—a/k/a personal 'training data'? 

You mentioned your kids have a different relationship with technology than you do, what did you mean by that?

I remember a time before the internet, while my kids have never known life without it. They accept technology as a natural part of life and they don’t have to unlearn any of the 'old rules' around it. To me, tech is a tool I use but to them it's an extension of their world.

For example, we're a big video game house. For me and my partner, video games are about adventure and puzzle solving (a means to an end). Meanwhile, our kiddos love video games in a different way. They’re not focused on completing the task at hand. Instead, for them the point of playing is to immerse themselves in the world the game has built. They will do this for hours in games like Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda, and even Mario Kart (which is infuriating for bystanders). To be clear, they can race and play the game they’ve just decided they don't want to do that.

My kiddos also just take the latest tech as normal. For example, I always lose my phone. Whenever this happens, the stress of the situation somehow reverts me back to the early 2010s and I turn up the house looking for it. However, if my kiddos are near me they are quick to remind me to use my watch and "beep it".

What are your hopes for their relationship with technology as they get older? Will you let them have AI friends? Use AI to do homework? Do you want them to work in tech?

My hope is that they are tech literate throughout their lives. I would love for them to go into tech so we could bond over it, but I want them to chase whatever dreams they have and teach me about them along the way. Tech will be there wherever they go. When I was growing up I was sold this idea that you had to pick one career and stick with it forever. But things evolve so rapidly today that resilience and creativity matter more than rigid paths. No matter what they choose, being tech literate will help them navigate their careers, spot misinformation, identify AI-generated content, and automate the mundane so they can focus on the creative, forward-thinking work that matters to them. 

When it comes to homework, I'm pro using AI for it to augment their studies so long as they are increasing their agency and learning process, not just phoning it in. For example, when writing an essay they shouldn't use AI to just write the book report, they should use it to workshop:

• How to write tricky passages or complex thoughts they want to get across

• How to make a section more concise

• Potential improvements based on a grading rubric

Do you use any devices/apps for parenting? If so, what?

We've been using devices/apps for parenting since day one. When the kiddos were born we absolutely swore by the Owlet app paired with their sleep sock. It saved me so much sleep because I was always a nervous young mom worried about severe baby sleep apnea that runs in my family.

Now that the kiddos are older, we use air tags to track them when we are in crowded places and LLMs for fun things. For example, at bedtime we noticed that they got bored of reading the same books and instead wanted to write their own stories. We'll use LLMs to do this by having the kiddos prompt the premise, I'll sneak in some important lessons that i'd like them to learn or solidify from the day (ex: don't touch hot things!), ask the LLM to use as many "sight words" in the story as possible, and ask the LLM to write it for a kindergarten level so my oldest kiddo can read it back to us. This has been a fun, creative process for them as well as a great way to learn their sight words for school (see 3D printed sight word necklace we made as well).

Another app we swear by for random parenting hacks (not just for tvs!) is the Kasa Smart outlet app. We got an inflatable Zero (from Nightmare Before Christmas) lawn ornament last Christmas and it was such a hit we still use it as a "carrot" to get the kiddos to put their shoes on in the morning and get out the door. If they get ready in time they get to watch Zero blow up magically at 8am. We're "that" house with the holiday decor in May.

It hasn’t been possible to know exactly where your kid is at all times before.

We haven’t really had to think about generative AI friends before.

Smartphones haven’t been as essential for as many aspects of life before.

Today, parents face a unique set of challenges with our kids while also navigating generative AI fueled changes and an array of apps and devices we could use to help us parent.

But in the past, parents faced fears about the radio, the TV, video games, and the internet. And parents learned. They adapted. The world didn’t end.

What I liked most about my recent interview with Dr. Susan Walker is her reminder that parents’ most powerful tool for navigating situations — our ability to connect with each other — hasn’t disappeared. It’s actually been amplified.

Now, if we want to see if someone has a similar parenting question or challenge in about 10 minutes we can ask:

1. A group of strangers

2. A group of friends

3. Groups of friends to ask strangers for us

4. AI trained on our favorite advice (e.g. Emily Oster’s ParentData or Dr. Becky) and then ask our friends for their thoughts on that advice.

Kind of incredible.

Instagram post

I had the week off so I got motivated to connect with other parents. Feeling accomplished after:

1. Talking with the dad who led The Dad Time Out Show to 98 episodes (he found great benefit in community)

2. Started using Instagram and Threads again (early days but found some winning folks like The Gamer Educator)

3. Asking two more parents about tech and parenting (posts to come)

4. Reached out to group chats and a few experts about AI for kids learning and AI friends (very interesting + posts to come)

Looking forward to sharing more and wishing you the best on your own new parenting connections.

If you’ve got questions or comments on anything hit reply! Here are some good ones:

Instagram post

Instagram post

When we become parents, we all imagine introducing our kids to the things we loved growing up—books, movies, shows. And, we hope that they’ll see what we saw and feel what we felt. For Lyle, a dad of two boys (ages 6 and 8), that moment came in the form of spiky hair, glowing energy, and a lot of shouting. The show? Dragon Ball Z Kai, a remake of the original Dragon Ball Z.

As a kid, Lyle remembers watching cartoons with his dad—old-school shows like Space Ghost and Johnny Quest. “He would get into them when we watched,” Lyle said. “It felt like something he wanted to share, thinking we’d enjoy them like he did—but also, maybe something beyond that. He wanted to watch them again too.”

Years later, Lyle did something similar. First showing his kids Batman: The Animated Series, then Beast Wars and Harry Potter, and eventually, Dragon Ball Z Kai. Unlike the original Dragon Ball Z (DBZ), which stretched fights over 30 episodes thanks to side quests and filler arcs, Kai is a tighter, remastered cut. Lyle thinks it’s better: “it’s significantly shorter feeling. I'm glad they got rid of the side BS.” To be clear, it’s still 167 episodes - or 83 hours - long and Lyle says it took time to get through.

From Storytime to Super Saiyan

This wasn’t a formal ritual. No big title like “Movie Night.” It was just “Time for DBZ and bed.” A few episodes a night, after dinner and showers, lying in bed. Lyle described it as his version of storytime. “I remember rocking them and reading children’s books, but I think I was itching for this time to decompress.”

Sometimes his wife, Chelsea, joins too—half-watching while scrolling her phone. Other nights, they switch it up and watch The X-Files, a show new to both parents and kids. “If we have enough time, we’ll watch that,” Lyle said. “It’s awesome. Totally new for all of us.”

Watching Big Moments Land

One highlight? Seeing the kids react to the show’s most iconic transformations. “When Goku went Super Saiyan for the first time—we all just looked at each other with wide eyes like, ‘Wow, what just happened?!’” Lyle said.

Sometimes they go deep. During the Buu saga, Goku chooses to stay dead rather than step in—hoping others will rise to the occasion. “That got them thinking about responsibility and letting others grow,” Lyle explained. “Of course, when Goku finally swooped in to save the day, they were all-in for that too.”

Even the bad guys spark conversations. “My 6-year-old, will ask, ‘Why would he do that?’ when a villain does something awful. And we get to talk about people’s choices—and how Goku always stands up to them, even when it’s hard.”

Skip Buttons and Side Conversations

It hasn’t all been smooth. Lyle says the Kai edit cuts out most of the questionable content—but not all of it. “Sometimes I just skip forward with the remote by 10-second intervals until a moment has passed.”

The kids have fully embraced the world of the show. “When they play fight in the living room, they’re blasting each other with Kamehameha’s,” Lyle said. “And they know the characters so well. Sometimes more than I do. They’ll watch YouTube videos about the backstories.”

What’s Next?

The family recently started watching Dragon Ball Daima, a new show from DBZ’s original creator, Akira Toriyama. “It’s in Japanese, so I read the subtitles for them,” Lyle said. “It’s fun because it’s totally new and unfolding for all of us.”

And after that? Sometimes they hop over to YouTube and watch a guy who keeps frogs, spiders, and lizards. “He’s great and he shows how he takes care of them,” Lyle said.

If you’re thinking about adding a “movie night” or watching tradition, a friend wrote up this guide. My big takeaway? Make the timing really predictable: do it on the same day of the week, spend a similar amount of time watching. Unpredictability seems to create disappointment and frustration. And, make sure you talk about what you watched to catch any potential new concerns or big feelings.